Local pawn shop owner David Casper said shooting suspect James Holmes came into his Hillcrest shop a few months ago

Receive the latest local updates in your inbox

The suspect, shown here, is 24-year-old James Holmes. Police are pictured outside of a Century 16 movie theatre where as many as 12 people were killed and many injured at a shooting during the showing of a movie at the in Aurora, Colo., Friday, July 20, 2012.

Updated at 11:05 AM PST on Saturday, Jul 21, 2012

James Holmes, the man accused of the deadly movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo., allegedly visited a pawn shop in Hillcrest just months before Friday’s shooting, a local business owner said.

David Casper, owner of Hillcrest Pawnbrokers on 6th Avenue, said Holmes – who’s originally from San Diego -- came into his store to discuss firearms within the last few months.

“When I saw his picture this morning, first thing that popped into my mind was, ‘Oh, this guy looks really familiar,’” said Casper.

Friends, Neighbors Describe James Holmes

Neighbors, who asked not to be identified, say 24-year-old James Holmes "was off." Another neighbor described him as "socially awkward, quiet and sometimes, would just stare." NBC 7s Brandi Powell reports. (Published Friday, Jul 20, 2012)

“When they mentioned his name the first thing I did was check the computer because we do keep track of all of our gun sales. We’re a federal fire arms dealer, so everything is logged into our system. He wasn’t logged into our system, which means he didn’t officially do any transactions here,” he explained.

Casper said he remembers Holmes specifically because he visited his Hillcrest pawn shop several times in the last year. Casper said he remembered Holmes’ eyes, since that’s the facial feature he typically focuses on when speaking with customers.

Casper said he doesn’t recall anything strange about Holmes’ demeanor in his interactions with him. He said Holmes acted like every other customer he might see on occasion.

“I’ve actually turned down customers and refused to show guns to people if they seemed a little off or a little strange,” added Casper.